Residents of Orange Street have fun in the water as rain floods the downtown St. Augustine street on Tuesday afternoon. By RENEE UNSWORTH, renee.unsworth@staugustine.com

sheldon.gardner@staugustine.com

Street flooding damages several cars; today could be more of same

Severe storms drenched downtown Tuesday afternoon, bringing 2 to 3 inches of rain for more than an hour and flooding some streets.

Parts of St. Augustine and surrounding areas received around 3 inches of rain in the afternoon, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Marie Trabert.

Flooded streets included the bayfront, King Street, and areas around San Marco Avenue, the Fountain of Youth and the main library, said Mark Samson, St. Augustine Police Department spokesman. Reports also came in of a partially submerged car on San Carlos Avenue.

“We had an extremely high tide around lunch,” Samson said on Tuesday afternoon. “Because of that and the deluge we just had, we’re having some minor flooding issues.”

Flooding damaged several cars. A taxi cab rested on the side of West Castillo Drive with its hood up. The driver said he was driving down Riberia Street when his engine flooded.

The St. Augustine Police Department had reports of cars being towed off U.S. 1., and two cars were damaged on San Carlos Avenue in front of the main library because of the flooding.

Mark Youmans, manager at First Coast Powersports, said the water rose around 3 to 4 feet high in the area where the road dips in front of the library. Two cars were “flooded” when they tried to drive through the water, including an Infiniti that had two people inside. The water reached the lower part of the car door and both were able to get out, he said.

San Carlos Avenue and most streets had drained by around 4:30 p.m., and storms moved offshore.

Conditions could be similar today. St. Johns County has a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms with the threat of heavy winds and rain, said Phil Peterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The St. Augustine Lighthouse area has received more than 39 inches of rain since Jan. 1, which is about 9 inches above normal in rainfall for this time of the year, Peterson said.